LSA SMEs take advantage of their CRMs (Customer Relationship Management Systems) for much more than the management of potential clients or their current database, as Scribe Software reveals in a study that has just been completed. Contact management is obviously the first function, with 94%, but not forgetting that 65% of the companies also use them for lead management, as well as 59% for both email marketing and forecasting campaigns Of sales. The results have led researchers to conclude that “the myth that SMEs are less sophisticated, or that they need fewer tools, is not true”.

The study also analyzed how SMEs value their CRMs. Since they are mainly used for contact management, it is not surprising that 85% value them based on their ability to store all available information from customers and prospects in one place. Many SMEs also value the possibility of sharing data between different departments, such as sales, marketing and others (77%), the ability to prepare reports on the sales process (64%) as well as marketing reports (53%).

Satisfaction about the ease of reporting is no longer so high. A small majority find that the marketing report is somewhat (42%) or very (10%) complicated, while 44% say the same about sales reports. And while 59% say that the flow between sales and marketing is fluid, only 39% think the same when sharing data between sales and administration is concerned.

The study was carried out in November and December of 2012, among 306 PYMES users of CRM systems. 68% of the companies had more than 20 positions, the remaining 32% with less than that number.